Can any playtesters look at this?

[Edi]

Yes. The first time a single corrupt/out-of-bounds/incorrect item is accessed, the whole shebang goes tits-up. You need to remove the problem sprite altogether and try without it. If the same problem persists after that, it needs more investigating.

Mind you, I'm just conjecturing based on how map files behave. What with the 563 sites (1-563), the game will behave normally as long as you stay in provinces with correct assignment and don't access the nation overview. But as soon as you try to enter a province that has #feature 564+ assigned in the map file, or you press F1 (which accesses the province for site reference) you get the fatal error.

Since mod files, just like map files, are text based sequential command lists where the commands are executed in order, it logically follows that the first instance of accessing an entity supposedly created by an invalid command kills the process dead.

Edi

[DrPraetorious]

Okay, here's how I know that isn't the problem.

Compare the two mod files I've attached (megamod_late.dm and megamod_late2.dm are zipped together) - you can swap from one to the other by renaming and then restarting the dominions executable. The only difference between the two is WHERE IN THE FILE the dwarves (Kharam Dzu) appear. You will also need the attachment at the root of this thread for the graphics if you don't already have it.

If Kharam Dzu appears in the middle of the file, you can play them (sprites for their initial commander load just fine), but when you try to recruit units, the game crashes (one of their recruitables is triggering the sprite error, therefore.)

On the other hand, if you move that entire block of monsters to the begining (as in the second file) Kharam Dzu becomes playable - and Trade Confederation, which appears immediately before Kharam Dzu in the first file, becomes unplayable. If you look at exactly what I'm moving, it has to be the number of things and not any particular thing which is causing the crash. The other nations that are playable in version 1 remain playable in version 2, even though they are also now-after Khazam Dzu.

So - Trade Federation becomes unplayable when you add Kharam Dzu to the begining of the file, but everything before Trade Federation remains playable, meaning I haven't added anything to the begining that screws up the entire rest of the file. Am I making sense?

I think this means that something somewhere is overflowing, and it's happening halfway through the unit list, and effecting all units after the overflow, even though all the units are formatted just fine.

Since whatever it is that's overflowing is triggering a sprite loading error - I would tend to assume that it's the custom sprite memory block (or something, again I don't know how Johan has engineered the thing) which is overflowing.

Is too late to be added to the beta testers list? I really want to get this thing working and if any of the beta testers, who are presumably more knowledgeable in this than I am, could verify my conclusions, I'd be quite appreciative because I'm not a tester and I'm kinda in the dark here.

[HoneyBadger]

I'm really hoping that the numbers of units expands a sizeable amount, into the 5000 range, because I'm currently working on something around 7 or 8 nations, and they're all unit heavy. I could probably add that many units to a game as things are, but their are too many good mods out there (and I'm sure more and better to come) that I'd like to incorporate over time into my own version of a balance-mod. Even I would-well...probably-be satisfied with a limit of 5000 units.

[Singularity24601]

Perhaps 5000 units, 50 nations, each with 20 heroes, 10 multiheroes...

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont mod well enough, and dont have the time to look at one carefully, so I will toss this out and you cn forget it if its dumb.

The only mod I did try to do was an All_Nations mod. The problems I ran into was that the game did not handle duplicate handles well. I had to go thru and rename ALL of the nations so Ulm became early_Ulm, mid_Ulm, and late_Ulm. The empty slots became named as their number slots such as Nation_70.

Is there any chance of a "two using the same handle" situation in your mod? Like I said, I havent looked at it so if thats a stupid question then forget it.

[Endoperez]

Actually, Gandalf, that might be the cause. Machaka, Spider Cult is named Machaka, and having it the same game with MA Machaka could cause problems.

[Sombre]

Nah it's not that. It's just a limitation of Dom3 right now.

[Gandalf Parker]

Sounds worth looking at. Keeping to Ulm as an example, in my original version I had been told by other modders that this was all that was needed:
#selectnation 2
#era 1
#end

#selectnation 31
#era 1
#end

#selectnation 52
#era 1
#end

But in play testing it all I got was one of the Ulms as an option. I think it was the first one.

What I ended up having to do was:

#selectnation 2
#name "early Ulm"
#era 1
#end
#selectnation 31
#name "mid Ulm"
#era 1
#end
#selectnation 52
#name "late Ulm"
#era 1
#end

In my case all I was interesting in was getting it to show up on the menu as a nation to play. It apparently only have room for one "Ulm". But Im thinking that if the game treats nations that way then it might also be picky about other things being named the same.

[Sombre]

Yeah I know, but that isn't the problem here. Well, at least as far as I know.

I've never run into the game caring about things with the same name apart from on the nation selection screen, where as you say you can't have two called simply 'Ulm'.

[DrPraetorious]

Yeah, that isn't the problem.

You can name the units "1" through "110" (or whatever number it was) and it still triggers the error, IIRC.